Sony Options Film Rights to David Baldacci's Children's Book

"The Finisher" follows a 14-year-old girl who lives in a town surrounded by a forest that's supposedly full of monsters.

Sony has optioned the rights to David Baldacci's upcoming fantasy novel, The Finisher.

The book, aimed at readers between the ages of 9 and 13, will follow a 14-year-old girl who lives in a village called Wormwood where the people have been told that the forest surrounding them is full of monsters. When her mentor disappears, the young girl begins to realize that everything isn't as it seems in her hometown.

Matt Tolmach is producing the project.

Scholastic is releasing the book, which will be Baldacci's first stand-alone children’s book, in March 2014. Baldacci's first novel was Absolute Power, which was made into a film starring Clint Eastwood and Gene Hackman. He's published more than two dozen novels since, many being adult thrillers. He's dabbled in children's novels before, writing Day of Doom, the final book in the best-selling multiplatform The 39 Clues series.

Columbia Pictures production president Hannah Minghella and production vp Lauren Abrahams, with Aaron Priest at The Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency and Lucy Stille at Paradigm closed the deal. Kate Checchi will oversee the project for Tolmach.